M2Film becomes Global Production Company of the Year for the second year in a row

This article is a translated version of an article originally published by Markedsføring, written by Susanne Ingemann

Four films from LEGO, Søstrene Grene and Novozymes, respectively, won 7 awards in total at last night's Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards 2018. M2Film produced all four films and was once again awarded the title of Global Production Company of the Year.

Seven distinguished statues was the grand total count for Denmark at yesterday's Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards - also known as "the World Cup for Corporate Films" - and it was LEGO, Søstrene Grene, Novozymes and not least M2Film receiving all the glory.

In the end, Denmark received two gold awards, four silver awards, and then a special award was given to M2Film who for the second year in a row ran away with the title of Global Production Company of the Year.

Two of the awards - one gold and one silver - was awarded to the Netflix documentary "LEGO House - Home of the Brick" in the categories Web Documentaries and Lifestyle, Art, Music & Culture, while one more gold statue was awarded to LEGO Classic's "Creative Storytelling" campaign in the category Social Media & Short Videos.

And it was certainly not just the LEGO brand having a party yesterday.

A poetic film from Søstrene Grene, "The wonderful world of Anna and Clara", took home two silver statues in the categories Marketing Communication - B2C and Corporate Videos, and a recruitment film from Novozymes was awarded with a silver statue in the category Human Resources.

The winning films are all developed and produced by M2Film who continue to ride the wave of success from last year's show in Cannes.

Here they collaborated with A.P. Moller-Maersk to win the much-coveted Grand Prix award for "The Heart of Trade" campaign, in addition to winning the title of Global Production Company of the Year, the award that the film wizards from Aarhus with much excitement won once more this year.

Exultation at LEGO House"LEGO House - Home of the Brick", which was launched globally on Netflix at the end of June, takes us behind the scenes of the massively comprehensive construction of the LEGO House, a 12,000 m2 large experience center filled with 25 million LEGO bricks.

And the result in Cannes most certainly was cause for celebration within the LEGO House team who during these very days are celebrating the impressive building's 1-year birthday with a ton of activities.

Jesper Vilstrup, General Manager at LEGO House, says:

- We are very excited about the film, which we believe gives a good glimpse into how every single detail of the LEGO House is thought through thoroughly, and how the house is exploding with creativity and imagination. And the fact that the international jury agrees with that is nothing less than fantastic.

At M2Film Ole Holm Christensen, Executive Producer at M2Film, also couldn't be more satisfied with the performance from all involved parties:

- It is an amazing feeling when a project like this gets this level of recognition, beyond just the expected. When more people than just the film's audience clearly appreciate the large amount of passion that has gone into our work with "Home of the Brick" and with the LEGO brand in general, he says.

A recap of the winning films from Denmark:

- Gold to LEGO House for Lego House – Home of the Brick in Web Documentaries- Silver to LEGO House for Lego House – Home of the Brick in Lifestyle, Art, Music & Culture- Gold to LEGO Classic for Creative Storytelling in Social Media & Short Videos- Silver to Søstrene Grene for The wonderful world of Anna and Clara in Marketing Communication – B2C- Silver to Søstrene Grene for The wonderful world of Anna and Clara in Corporate Videos- Silver to Novozymes for Graduate Recruitment in Human Resources

And a Blue Dolphin statue to M2Film for earning the title of Global Production Company of the Year.

LEGO House goes global on Netflix

This article is a translated version of an article originally published by Markedsføring, written by Susanne Ingemann

A new Netflix documentary tells the origin story of the creative experience house LEGO House in Billund. It's branded content in a big way, and M2Film developed and produced the film. Watch here.

The creative experience house LEGO House was royally inagurated in the fall, and now the whole world gets a 'behind the scenes' look into the construction and creation process.

This is made possible due to a 47-minute long documentary film, LEGO House - Home of the Brick, developed and produced by M2Film in close collaboration with the toy concern, which has just launched globally on Netflix.

The film production company has been on the sidelines since they cut the first sod and all the way to the grand opening in order to follow and document the ambitious construction project, and Jesper Vilstrup, General Manager at LEGO House, is satisfied with the result:

- Together with M2Film we've really dived into the big vision behind LEGO House: To create the ultimate experience for LEGO fans of all ages. To us it was especially important that the documentary reflected the house as a physical manifestation of the spirit behind the LEGO brand, and in regards to that I feel the result is spot on, he says.

The most inner core

The creative experience house, which was architect-designed by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and is filled with 25 million LEGO bricks, has for many years been a passion project for Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen - the third generation owner of the LEGO concern.

Thus, he also plays a big role himself in the documentary, in which he for example tells the story behind the LEGO products and the birthplace of the brick, Billund.

And even though M2Film has produced all sorts of content for LEGO throughout the years, this film was something really special, Ole Holm Christensen says, an Executive Producer at M2Film:

- We have had a long, valuable collaboration with LEGO, but this is special. Maybe because we have been inside the most inner core of the LEGO brand's history and values, infected with Kjeld's dream, and over a period of almost two years we've documented the materialization of LEGO House in the finest way, he says, and adds:

- This documentary, to us, is branded content of the utmost potency. Engaging storytelling and relevant communication with a broad appeal - even globally.

The documentary about LEGO House has been launched in all regions on Netflix, and those who have a subscription to the streaming service can watch the film in its entirety here.

Learn more about the experience house here - and watch the trailer for the LEGO House documentary here.

OK celebrating their ad's success

OK celebrating their ad's success

OK's "fencing film" won a lot of awards at The True Award this Friday evening, and it's flattering. "To have customers who are also, in a way, ambassadors for the messages of one's ads is probably one of the things you wish for the most from a marketing perspective", the marketing executive believes.

As mentioned, OK's "Fencing" ad, featuring a fencing club who has to go through terribly many ordeals in order to make things work, ran away with a lot of honors when The True Award were handing out awards for the best ads of the year Friday evening.

OK were able to walk away from the awards show with "The Students' Award", "The TV 2 Award" and "Norstats Audience Award" in their arms.

- We are incredibly proud to have received three awards that all have in common that they are awarded based on what the consumers and the customers most enjoy. To have customers who are also, in a way, ambassadors for the messages of one's ads is probably one of the things you wish for the most from a marketing perspective, says OK marketing executive Ole Kjeldgaard.

Recommended ad

In particular, he singles out the "Audience Award" and "The TV 2 Award". The latter is a new initiative at The True Award, the purpose of which is to provide the consumer's evaluation of which ad has the strongest impact.

- This means that it has been estimated that our ad has a broad appeal. And in connection with this it is worth noting that TV 2 has analyzed a very wide range of ads amongst a panel of consumers from the TV channel's knowledge bank, says Ole Kjeldgaard.

- OK scored highly in the test when it came to whether or not the consumers wanted to watch the ad again, and a large amount of the consumers would mention the ad to their friends if they were talking about similar products. We are very delighted about this at OK, he further says.

In addition, "Fencing" has given 23 percent of the consumers a more positive perception of OK, says the conclusion of the analysis from TV 2's creative knowledge bank, which has so far tested 230 ads and has involved more than 600 representatively chosen consumers.

The ad agency Agency Spring and M2Film collaborated with OK's marketing department to make "Fencing".

Edmonton Ad Looks Like a Carbon Copy of Famous 2012 Spot

The Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta, has created an epic commercial about how cool it is to ride the bus. But it's like flashing back to a trip you've taken before.

Everything seems eerily familiar: the slow-motion footage of riders outrageously gleefully to find themselves on the bus; the tongue-in-cheek voiceover extolling the vehicle's "amenities"; the epic music cues; and especially the hirsute driver, with those shades, just too damn cool for their own reflections.

The two commercials below share those similarities. One is the Edmonton Transit System's "ETS Cool Bus," which went viral this week. The other spot, Midttrafik's "The Bus" from Denmark, was a huge hit in 2012, when it won the Epica d'Or in film at the Epica Awards and a gold at Eurobest.

Both clips are amusing and do a great job of portraying bus travel as convenient and desirable. Still … are the spots too close for comfort?

ETS rep Jennifer Laraway tells Adweek that Edmonton has always acknowledged that "part of our inspiration came from the Danish video." Indeed, a Facebook post from May, when "ETS Cool Bus" launched, notes that the spot mirrors "a similar campaign in Denmark for a manufacturing company of buses." Laraway says that ETS will soon clearly credit its Danish source on YouTube and Facebook.

However, she hastens to add that while the Midttrafik ad served as a departure point, "we wanted ours to focus on actually taking the bus and the rider benefits of doing so. For example, you'll notice our campaign has several distinctions, such as safely being able to text (we have a provincial law here that it is illegal to use a handheld device while driving), reading, personal climate control, and references to our monthly transit passes."

What do the makers of the original "Bus" ad—who hadn't seen or heard of the ETS spot until we brought it to their attention—think of all this?

"We are a bit surprised, I must say," says Ronni Madson, vice president of M2 Films in Copenhagen, which produced "The Bus" for Midttrafik. "But we are trying just to be humbly flattered."

Midttrafik rep Britta Charmig suggests that, in some ways, the ETS commercial—created by Studio Post—stretches the definitions of inspiration and homage rather far. "Most scenes, the slow-motion effect and the cool bus driver have been directly copied," she says.

Still, the Danes aren't getting too melancholy about the situation. "We are proud that we have made a film that has inspired others to do almost exactly the same," says Charmig. "It proves that the idea was good and makes us sort of first movers in good and funny bus ads."

"They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I suppose I am flattered on behalf of our team," adds Mads Munk, owner and founder of M2Film. "Maybe I should give up my job heading up a company who come up with original ad campaigns and become a cool bus driver myself!"

Mental playground

M2Film may not be a household name (yet), but chances are you’ve seen its work. The Danish production company is responsible for the majority of Lego’s animation output, and their envelope-pushing ads regularly find resonance beyond their home audience.

Founder and CEO Mads Munk is a sharp-eyed, dauntless man with a reassuring charm. Entirely self-made, he left home aged 10 and found his way to London at 16; a stint selling flowers at a market stall sparked his visual imagination and supported him through multimedia school. After a period at Lego’s AV department, he founded M2Film, determined for it to be playful, creative and daring – a reflection of his own state of mind.

The company’s output is broad, but it particularly excels at creating engaging advertisements for otherwise mundane products and services. A 2012 TV spot for bus company Midttrafik, for instance, showed a bus traversing the Danish countryside as passengers clamber to board, jumping for joy at the sight of grab handles and gasping in wonderment as the stop button springs to action. In another, male underwear by Danish brand JBS is touted by bikini-clad bombshells working a production line.

Munk surmises that the creation of a viral campaign requires bravado on the parts of both producers and clients. ‘I think you have to live in the times you are living in, and be as sophisticated as they are,’ he says. ‘But if the times are very sophisticated, you do the opposite.’ He is happy to bank on raw sex appeal, but emphasises that a sense of humour is at the core of M2Film’s work. ‘The final seconds of the JBS ad shows a young boy attempting to purchase a pair, only to be denied by a blunt “this is for men only”. At the end of the day, it’s all done in good fun.’ The strategy seems to be working as not only is M2 now the largest production company in Denmark, but Mads has also recently opened an animation studio on London's Dean St and launched a UK/US entertainment company.

The Munk-designed M2Film offices reflect the company’s unconventional spirit. The style is eclectic – sleek Barcelona and Aeron chairs sit side by side with sturdy chesterfields. The head office in Aarhus has a full juice bar and a huge barista machine; staff are encouraged to make proper coffee and smoothies. ‘If you can give your client a beverage that you’ve just made for them, they’ll think, “this person cares deeply about my drink, so he probably cares deeply about my product”.’

But it’s the ceiling fixtures that truly impress. Cluttered with sound plates, the cavernous space looks like a concert hall. Outsized chandeliers squeezed into close quarters heighten the sense of drama. In the centre is suspended a meeting room clad entirely in glass. As a seasonal aside, the yearly budget for office Christmas decorations – set by Munk himself – now pips £20k. ‘It’s very OTT,’ he chuckles.

But M2 has much more to offer than just gimmicks. Munk is introducing a new scheme that will allow his staff to choose where in the world they work, ‘whether in Aarhus, Copenhagen, London or Bangkok. I want M2 to be one big playground, where they can develop themselves and create their own success.’

Two times bronze at Epica Awards

At this years Epica Awards the two cinema spots, "The Cake" and "Slap" made for Coca-Cola, each won bronze in the category "Corporate image". The two films, which were made in a creative collaboration with Saatchi & Saatchi and director Tore Frandsen, has been well received. Earlier this year, at the annual Creative Circle, the two films won gold and silver.

Creative circle gold and silver

At the annual Creative Circle award show the two Coca-Cola cinema spots won the prestigous gold and silver award in the category "Film, singles". The two films were made together with Saatchi & Saatchi and director Tore Frandsen.

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